The Impact of Technology on Business Growth in …...The Impact of Technology on Business Growth in Africa: The Legal Industry a Test Case pg. 3 INTRODUCTION In recent times, fascinating

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN

AFRICA: THE LEGAL INDUSTRY A TEST CASE

JULY 21, 2017

GOODNEWS DANIEL

The Impact of Technology on Business Growth in Africa: The Legal Industry a Test Case

pg. 1

Contents

ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... 2

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 3

THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION ............................................... 4

The 21st Century Law is Moore’s Law........................................................... 6

The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer ......................................... 8

THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET ................................................................. 9

Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry ............. 14

Legal Technologies Adoption .................................................................... 15

Legal Market Liberalization ...................................................................... 25

Social Networking ....................................................................................... 27

Mergers & Acquisitions ............................................................................. 27

Specialization ............................................................................................... 28

Softwarization ............................................................................................. 28

CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY ........................ 29

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 31

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 33


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THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS GROWTH IN

AFRICA: THE LEGAL INDUSTRY A TEST CASE

Paper presented at:

African Bar Association Annual Conference, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

6th – 10th August 2017.

Goodnews Daniel

Lex Computus Labs

24 Azikoro Road,

Yenagoa, Bayelsa State,

Nigeria.

tel. +(234) 810-859-6969

e-mail: [email protected]

WORKING PAPER: Not for citation or distribution without permission of the

author.

ABSTRACT

Technology is a major game changer in the 21st - century legal industry. It has so

radically changed the business of law that legal systems, law firms and law

schools around the world are compelled to reappraise, redefine and restructure

their systems, business models and curricula to catch up with its rapid

advancement and exponential growth. The global digital economy, of which the

global legal market is an integral part, is solely software-driven.

Thus, it is impracticable for any legal industry to thrive in this global digital

economy without adopting and leveraging Artificial Intelligence-driven software

technologies for legal education and uber-efficient legal practice. The African

legal industry, however, seems farther from legal-tech literacy and adoption in

contradistinction to their Western counterparts.

How do we find and define our place in the global legal market? How do we

thrive in the global digital economy as an industry? How do we drive growth in

the legal industry in Africa? How do we drive growth in Africa? These are the

questions this paper attempts to answer.

Keywords: Technology, Economy, Business, Growth, Legal Service Market,

Africa, Law, Computer


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INTRODUCTION

In recent times, fascinating reports about Africa and her massive economic

potentials and enviable destiny abound. In contradistinction to what obtained in

the last century, the Continent is rapidly becoming the global economic growth

engine, having half of the world’s 25 fastest-growing nations. It is predicted that

the population is set to grow by 50 per cent to 1.5bn by 2030, with a working-age

population rise from the present 500m to 1.1bn by 2040, which is greater than the

combined working-age populations of China and India.1

With a vast Continent of 54 countries with over 1billion of the world’s

population, enveloped in enormous natural resource deposits, Africa effortlessly

offers a wealth of opportunities for both local and international investors.” 2 And

as the world continues looking to emerging markets as the drivers for global

economic growth, accounting for the 70% of world growth over the next few

years3, Africa will continually attract the developed world for several rounds of

scramble in the 21st century.

However, as the World Bank rightly observed, for African countries to

empirically taste their latent economic power and inherent prosperity, and

accelerate the pace of their economic progress, “they must create the right

conditions to exploit the advantages information-based technology offers to

enhance productivity and competitiveness and learn lessons from successful

growth experiences.”4 This is because technology itself has become the global

economic growth engine of the 21st century as it is driving all economies, ranging

from emerging to advanced. Thus, Africa’s economic progress is, doubtless,

dependent upon wholesale engagement, deployment and exploitation of

technology.

Today, the widespread impact of technology is patently seen and palpably felt in

all spheres of life and vocation. As a unifying factor, and the very language and

tool for globalization, technology spreads its disruptive tentacles across various

industries and sectors of the global economy, radically altering the world order,

1 Lex Mundi, Africa – The Great Opportunity, 18 July, 2016, available at https://www.thelawyer.com/issues/11-

july-2016/africa-the-great-opportunity/

Accessed 29/06/2017. 2 Leaders League, African Legal Markets: An Exciting Story in the Making, 27th September, 2016, available at

http://www.leadersleague.com/en/news/african-legal-markets-an-exciting-story-in-the-making. Accessed 12

June, 2017. 3 John Cussons and Nicholas Brush, Into Africa: Opportunities and Risks in the African Legal Market, Ark Group,

2013, available at https://www.ark-group.com/product/africa-opportunities-and-risks-african-legal-

market#.WWeWJDYizIU. Accessed 12 June, 2017. 4 The World Bank, Challenges of African Growth: Opportunities, Constraints and Strategic Directions, 2007


pg. 4

global culture and business. Thus, business is not business as usual anymore.

Business models are changing to conform to the new technology-driven order in

order to avoid obsolescence and/or escape creative destruction5.

Various existing systems are being restructured. Old ideas are being remodelled

and reconfigured to fit into this new context. Industries are recontextualizing6.

Without doubt, the advent of computer technology and telecommunications7, has

systematically transformed the global economy and business world. Indeed,

software technology has eaten up more than 75% of industries in the world.8 This

disruptive invasion has not been otherwise in the legal industry as well, its

perceived technological aversion and conservatism, notwithstanding. The legal

landscape has been revolutionized drastically as both legal education and legal

practice are consistently being detraditionalized through the instrumentality of

software technology, and the legal profession, gradually being disintermediated

through the agency of artificial intelligence-driven applications.

It is therefore the objective of this paper to discuss analytically, the impact of

technology on business growth in Africa, particularly the legal industry, and

design a roadmap for driving growth in the African legal industry through

technology adoption.

THE 21ST CENTURY LEGAL PROFESSION

The legal profession is an age-old profession.9 It is built on ancient norms,

cultures and practices.10 Law itself, and law practice have metamorphosed from

ancient times, through various phases to this present day. Legal historians claim

that law existed even in prehistoric times, which were codes written on metals

and scrolls. Its practice has always travelled a long bloody path from the rule of

5 Kodak and Blackberry are examples of companies that have been creatively destroyed. 6 It’s the Author’s neologism which connotes redefining a business model, system or ideas to fit into new

technology. Simply put, it means adopting to adapt. 7Ani Wilson, Angwunta David, Eneje Beatrice & Okwo Mary, How Telecommunications Aid Economic Growth:

Evidence from ITU ICT Development Index (IDI) Top Five Countries for African Region, International Journal of

Business, Economics and Management, 2014, 1 (2): 16-28 8 Andreessen, M., Why Software Is Eating The World, The Wall Street Journal, 2011, available at

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460. Accessed 16 February,

2017. 9 While Legal Historians claim that the oldest extant law code is The Code of Ur-Nammu (circa 2050 BC), which

preceded the Mosaic Code, some still believe that the first law was given by God by word of mouth to the first

man - Adam.

See Goodnews Daniel, What if the Computer Replaces the Lawyer? 2016. pp 21-47 10 Legal principles are mostly capsulized in Latin Maxims, except otherwise presented. Legal traditions have

passed from one generation to the next. For example, why do they wear a collar with two tabs? Duhaime says it

represents the two slabs of stone containing the law God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the nation of Israel.

ibid. However, most of these cultures, though ancient and seemingly unalterable, appear to be at the whims and

caprices of Bar Associations around the world.


pg. 5

man to the rule of law.11 There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that the 21st

century law cannot be same as what obtained in the last centuries.

How then is the legal profession in the 21st century? This question provokes

several others such as: What differentiates the 21st century from other centuries?

The 19th century had a major revolution - mechanization, that caused creative

destruction12 of most industries, beginning with the textile industry where artisans

and skilled workers of the time were replaced by machines13 in their workplace,

and productivity and efficiency became achievable.

But the 20th century moved a little farther by heralding the advent of computer

technology with the first universally accepted computer - ENIAC, designed

successfully in 1946.14 And through the decades, computer technology, the key

that unlocked the Information Revolution of the 20th century, revolutionized the

world and its industries15, as data could be created, stored, retrieved and

transmitted through computers and computer network, which also gave birth to

the Internet16.

More so, in the later part of the 20th century, computer technology welcomed the

World Wide Web (www)17 and that, together with the Internet, transformed the

11 Most of these are The Code of Ur-Nammu, The Urikagina’s Code, The Decalogue, The Code of Hammurabi,

etc. 12 Creative Destruction is a term coined by Joseph Schumpeter describing a situation where the new steps into the

old making the latter old and obsolete. In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), the Austrian-American

Economist wrote, thus: “The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development

from the craft shop to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation—if I may use

that biological term—that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying

the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about

capitalism.”

See, The Concise Encyclopaedia of Economics, Creative Destruction, available at

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CreativeDestruction.html. (accessed 12th June, 2017). 13 This was when Luddites who were allegedly replaced by machines at the factory, revolted by destroying the

inventions. See, Acemoglu, D. & Robinsons, J.A (2012) Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity and

Poverty, p. 85 14 The first publicly accepted electronic computer, designed by J. Presper Eckert – an astronomer, and John W.

Mauchly – a physicist, both of the Pennsylvania University, in the United States of America, was the ENIAC –

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, and was completed in 1946.

See, Goodnews Daniel (2016) supra. 15 Industries such as manufacturing, sales, media, medical, transportation, education, photography, arts,

engineering, legal, etc. have been revolutionized as business is no longer business as usual in various industries

through the use of computer technology.

See, ibid 16 The Internet as we see today is an evolution of ARPANET - a computer network of the US Military - an

Initiative of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and it’s simply an abridged form of International Network – which

means interconnected networks or a network of networks.

See, The Internet Society, Brief History of the Internet, available at http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-

internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet. (accessed 12th June, 2017). 17 Invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, it’s different from the Internet in that while

the Internet is the physical infrastructure of connected networks, the WWW is the layer of such connection that

enables networks to communicate through various protocols such as the TCP/IP suite (User Datagram Protocol,

HyperText Transfer Protocol, Domain Name System, File Transfer Protocol, Telnet, Simple Mail Transfer


pg. 6

world order, creating a new world of virtual existence and interaction. The world

was no longer what it was when God created it.18

Today, the 21st century has even witnessed and is still witnessing much more than

the 20th century did. Computer technology continues to grow and advance

exponentially. The Industrial Revolution gave law sufficient reasons to

recontextualize in order to cover the new terrains created by the advent of

machines, inventions and other human creations19, but computer technology has

done even more, radically altering law in various areas, both conceptually20, and

in practice.21

No doubts, the legal profession and law in the 21st century is one built not on

codes but on codes.22 Law in the 21st century is information technology.23 The

21st century lawyer is a fortiori completely different from the lawyer of the last

century.

The 21st Century Law is Moore’s Law

Only one law matters in the 21st century. It is known as Moore’s law. The amazing

truth is, not very many lawyers are aware of this law, especially the average

African lawyer24. If as noted, technology influences law both conceptually and in

practice, it is also important to acknowledge and accept that Moore’s Law is the

Protocol and Post Office Protocol (both for mailing), etc.). It is a collection of web pages written in HyperText

Marked Up Language (HTLM).

See, CERN, The Birth of the Web, available at, https://home.cern/topics/birth-web. (accessed 20th March, 2017). 18 While the Creation account rendered in Genesis Chapter One shows a terrestrial world created by God, man

recreated the world by creating a virtual world that replicates close to 80% of physical interactive realities through

computer technology, ranging from communication (mailing, chatting, conferencing, etc.) to education, dating,

commerce, intimacy, war, terrorism, privacy, etc. See, 19 As man began to exploits his creative power by inventing, Patent law became necessary in order to protect these

creations from being stolen by vultures. See, 20 Now, for instance, we have to reconceptualise the physical element of crime as technology poses the question:

What’s actus reus in cybercrime such as hacking, cyberterrorism, stealing, etc.? Law is forced nolence volence to

redefine itself electronically. 21 Being an information-rich industry, data is no longer managed manually as computer technology has made

available several technology tools to help the legal profession manage information more efficiently. We shall look

more deeply into this later in this Paper. 22 When I say 21st-century Law is no longer built on codes but codes, I mean that, Law no longer refers only to

some corpus of rules codified, but also, a collection of computer codes or programs that create legal value or solve

legal problem. Examples of such law are the various legal tech programs such as document assembly software,

automation applications, e-discovery systems, legal expert systems, data analytics software, etc. 23 Professor John O. McGinnis of North-western School of Law observed, thus: “Law is, in effect, an

information technology - a code that regulates social life.”

See, John O. McGinnis, Machines V. Lawyers, 4 June 2014 City Journal, available at, https://www.city-

journal.org/html/machines-v-lawyers-13639.html#City%20Journal. (accessed 14th July, 2017). 24 If the African legal industry fails to understand this law, the enormous impact of technology on business growth

in the global legal industry cannot be felt in Africa in the same dimension. I will talk more about this later in this

Paper.


pg. 7

prophecy controlling technology in the 21st century, and perhaps, beyond25. What

is Moore’s Law? Moore’s Law is derived from Gordon Moore, Intel’s cofounder,

who in 1965 predicted that computing power would increase every eighteen

months to two years. In other words, the number of transistors that can fit on a

computer chip (its processing power) will double every eighteen months to two

years. 26

Such exponential growth is already happening today. As a matter of fact, Moore’s

Law is a self-fulfilling prophecy as evidently, the computational power in a cell

phone today is 1000 times greater and 1 million times less expensive than all the

computing might that was housed in MIT in 1965. Projecting forward, the

computing power 40 years from today (that is, by 2057) could exceed what we

have today by 1 million times. In fact, Moore’s Law self-fulfils far more

frequently than it posits. 27

But what happens when the size of transistors can no longer shrink? Does it mean

Moore’s Law will run out? One leading technologist and futurist, Google’s

Director of Research - Ray Kurzweil, thinks Moore’s Law is only a part of a more

general growth in computation as the push for enhanced computation was actually

begun by Electromechanical Methods which were eventually replaced by

Vacuum Tubes. Vacuum Tubes themselves were further replaced by Transistors

giving way to today’s Integrated Circuits. Further, other methods of computation

under intense research today are Carbon Nanotechnology and Optical Computing

which could become new platforms for the more-than-a-century-long continued

computation growth.28

Now if this is tenable, then Moore’s Law as long as it holds true, is the actual law

that regulates social life, and in some degree, delivering legal services through

machine intelligence. This is because the 21st century law has certain areas that

now face encroachment by machine intelligence - the result of Moore’s Law.

These areas include discovery (now e-discovery), document automation and

assembly (legal forms), legal analytics, etc.

The major challenge of the 21st century lawyer is machine intelligence, as it keeps

growing exponentially, deepening its disruptive cut in the legal industry, and

25 Since most great minds in the Technology industry, such as Ray Kurzweil, already believe that this law will run

out when transistors can no longer shrink, it might not be tenable much later as other researches are currently

being carried out to further increase computation growth. That means computing power might even double daily,

not 18 -24 months as Gordon Moore predicted! 26 See, http://www.mooreslaw.org/ 27 See, ibid 28 See, Joel Mokyr, The New Age of Invention, City Journal Winter 2014, available at https://www.city-

journal.org/html/next-age-invention-13618.html (accessed 15th July, 2017)


pg. 8

lawyers who fail to embrace it, would unavoidably lose their clients to either T-

Shaped lawyers or at worst, go out of business being disintermediated by the very

vendors of these technologies.

The I-Shaped Lawyer V. The T-Shaped Lawyer

There is a whole lot of difference between the lawyer of the last century and the

lawyer of the 21st century, both in opportunities, challenges, training, and nous.

The 20th century lawyer is what is known as the I-Shaped Lawyer. All they

boasted of was their deep legal expertise as represented by the straight I. Their

training was solely in Law and nothing else, hence, giving them enormous legal

knowledge with which they were able to navigate the tides and times of their

day.29

They were given to hard copy books, which was the only source of information

they had, thus, they were natural habitués of the library. Their curriculum was

centred around core Law Courses such as Law of Torts, Criminal Law, Contract

Law, Land Law, Jurisprudence, Company Law, Constitutional Law,

Administrative Law, Evidence Law, Commercial Law, and of course, procedural

law courses. That was the focus of their training and practice. Least wonder, they

consumed so much legal information and were adept, but lawyers in general,

despite their intelligence and skill at resolving legal issues, are considered

laggards and luddites when it comes to any changes that might affect their

practices. 20th-centrury lawyers, for instance, still prefer to avoid computers and

leave necessary online communications to their staffs. In the words of R. Amani

“…these are the 20th century lawyers running out the clock until retirement.”30

Also, the I-Shaped lawyer was given to some sort of bespoke legal work: one–

on–one, as opposed to the one-to-many legal service delivery approach of the T-

Shaped lawyer. This is because legal service was tailored to individual client as

every situation was considered unique.

On the other hand, 21st century T-Shaped lawyers are almost diametrically

opposed both in training and in practice to the I-Shaped. They are known as T-

Shaped lawyers in that while they have a deep knowledge of the law as was for

29 Amazingly, most lawyers in the 21st century are still purely I-Shaped but because of the change in information

structure in modern society, their relevance is becoming increasingly untenable.

See, R. Amani Smathers, The 21st-Century T-Shaped Lawyer, ABA Law Practice Magazine, July-August 2014,

Volume 40 Number 4, available at

https://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine/2014/july-august/the-21st-century-t-shaped-

lawyer.html (accessed 12th July, 2017). 30 See, R. Amani, supra.


pg. 9

20th-century lawyers, they also have a breath of knowledge across other fields that

enable them to competently navigate through practice in the midst of new

circumstances and issues raised by technology.

They are not only trained in the core courses of the I-Shaped lawyers, but also

acquire more knowledge in areas different from law. These areas amongst several

others include legal project management, data analytics, legal technologies, e-

discovery, data security, entrepreneurial lawyering, legal design thinking,

computer programming, etc.

Figure 1 The T-Shaped Lawyer

Source: ABA Law Practice Magazine 2014

This equips them for the 21st century that is fraught with wonders of technology

that demand proficient use or at least acquaintance knowledge of technology to

successfully handle and maintain relevance as technology has produced several

alternatives to the legal profession for providing legal services to consumers. 31

THE AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET

The global legal market size is estimated to be over $500 billion. According to

BusinessWire, “the USA was the largest country in the legal services market in

2016, accounting for about $290 billion or 45% of the global market. The UK

was the second largest market, accounting for about $45 billion or 7% of the

global market. Germany was the third largest market, accounting for about $25

31 We shall discuss this later on in this paper


pg. 10

billion or 4% of the global market. France account for 3.5% and $20 billion, while

Japan accounted for 0.5% of the global legal services market.”32

In other words, only the United States accounted for over 40 percent of the global

value of legal services market in 2016, sharing the rest with other advanced

economies such as Germany, UK, Japan and others. That said, in 2011, Africa

accounted for only 4 percent of global legal spend, whereas, it is anticipated to

account for 12 percent by 2025 33 What factors will cause such significant

increase in Africa’s share of the global legal spend?

According to World Bank, between 2012 and 2025, Africa is expected to be the

second fastest growing region in the world behind Asia in terms of real GDP

growth.34 That is, in terms of population, a burgeoning middle class, and a

growing GDP. Now, John Cussons and Nicholas Bruch state that “Between 2000

and 2011, Africa’s average annualised real GDP growth (real purchasing power

parity dollars) was 4.3 per cent; in the period 2012 to 2025 it is expected to be 4.2

per cent. For comparison, Asia’s average growth was 4.4 per cent and is expected

to remain at this level as far as 2025. The world average growth is predicted to be

3.2 per cent with advanced economies at 2.1 per cent, demonstrating the speed of

advancement in the emerging economies and, in particular, in Africa.” 35It means

that Africa with her vast natural resources will become a compelling investment

destination for international investors.36

Africa’s allure as investment destination is underpinned by certain factors which

include but not limited to rapid rate of urbanization, exponential population

growth, and an emerging middle class with disposable income. This is driven by

a population growth projection of 1.5 billion by 2030, and 1.2 billion living in the

city by 2050, with over 70% of sub-Saharan Africa living in free or partially free

democracies. 37

Globally, Ernst & Young projects world population growth of 2.3 billion,

reaching a total of 9.1 billion, by 2050. As a result of rising prosperity, it is

estimated that the world’s middle classes will have a combined purchasing power

of $56 trillion by 2030 – more than double the current levels.38 This projected

32 BusinessWire, Global Legal Services Market Report 2017 – Research and markets, May 4th 2017, available at,

www.businesswire.com/news/home/2017504005920/en/Global-Legal-Services-Report-2017- 33 Lex Mundi, Emerging Africa Conference Proceedings, 11 July 2016, available at, HTTP:

https://www.thelawyer.com/issues/11-july-2016/africa-the-great-opportunity/ (accessed 11th July, 2017). 34 World Bank, Africa’s Future and the World Bank Support for it, March 2011. 35 John Cussons & Nicholas Bruch, Into Africa: Opportunities and Risks in the African Legal Market, 2013 Ark

Group. 36 See Lex Mundi supra 37 Ibid 38 See Ernst & Young, Six Global Trends


pg. 11

global population growth will radically transform the global business landscape

as new opportunities will arise to supply this demand.

With Africa’s projected population escalation to 1.5 billion by 2030, Africa will

have the largest workforce by 2040 as shown in Table 1 which shows the

projected average annual population growth of Africa compared to other regions39

This means that investors will be attracted more to Africa than any other regions

of the world. And as these investors throng the Continent, the African legal

market will also snowball as there will be lots of regulatory, compliance and M

& A deals to handle. But this depends on several other factors we shall consider

as we discuss more.

Average Annual Population

Growth

(2012 – 2025)

Additional working age

population – millions

(2012-25)

Africa 2.9% 309

India 1.1% 201

China 0.2% 42

South East Asia 0.9% 78

Latin America 0.9% 76

Europe 0.3% 22

North America 1.0% 46

Table 1: Projected Annual Average Population Growth 2012 – 2025

Source: United Nations World Population Prospect

Today, Africa’s enormous natural resources are already attracting several

advanced and emerging economies for investment. From 2000, China has been

Africa’s biggest investor and partner. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce reports

that China’s investment in Africa, spanning the period 1998 – 2012 includes

about 2000 Chinese firms investing in 49 African countries.40

However, China’s Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) in various sectors of the

African economy indicates no investment connection with the legal sector41, even

when several other sectors in the service industry were touched, perhaps because

of adverse regulatory conditions which is one of the major challenges inhibiting

the inflow of FDI into the African economy42.

39 ibid 40 Wenjie Chen, David Dollar and Heiwai Tang, Why is China Investing in Africa? Evidence from the firm level,

August, 2015, p.3. 41 See, ibid 42 See Lex Mundi, supra


pg. 12

As market globalization continues to shape the development of industry sectors

globally, including legal service, resulting in countless domestic and cross-border

mergers, alliances and networks over the last 20 years, African legal market, like

the BRIC43 nations’, is forced to make a choice between adopting either

protectionism or liberalism as their legal market access approach. While the

former means that regulatory conditions restrict foreign incursion into the legal

market, the latter allows globalization to have its way even in the legal service

market, hence, creates room for foreign entry. The fact is, Bar

associations44across Africa have their different and various approaches to market

access but are all subsumed under the aforesaid polar extremes.

Accordingly, in North Africa, for instance, albeit Morocco and Algeria are

coterminous and competitive, their legal market entry approaches are different.

Whereas Morocco adopts a liberal market access approach having a regulatory

framework that entices and encourages international investors and influential

international law firms, Algeria is protectionist in their market access approach

as the legal market lacks a legislation that would allow for an open market even

though it was announced in 2016 that an investment code was being put in place

to liberalize the market.45

A glance at the legal market in Sub-Saharan Africa, commonly known for its

natural resources and a fast-growing FDI, reveals that many European, North

American, and Asian law firms are in discussions with local professionals.

Portugal’s Miranda & Associates, for instance, has a foothold on the legal market

in Angola and Mozambique, creating a network of lawyers located in about ten

countries across the Continent.

African lawyers themselves are also contending for the legal market. AELEX, a

Nigerian law firm, for instance, has offices in other parts of Africa, though

43 BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Brazil’s legal market is protectionist, hence, creates little room for international firms to enter the legal market,

only few of UK and US international firms - Linklaters, Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance and White & Case

are present with restriction not to use their international brand names as bar rules restrict them to operate in

association with Brazilian firms. Spanish firms are also present in Brazil.

Russia’s legal services market is burgeoning and has come a long way given that 50 years ago, there were no law

firms at all. Russian legal market is liberalized, hence, has UK, American, German and Russian firms in it.

Examples are Baker & McKenzie, Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer, Clifford Chance, Slaughter & May, etc.

India’s legal market is highly protectionist. But the big news in 2006 was the union of two of the oldest law firms

- Fox Mandal and Little & Co. The merged entity – Fox Mandal Little – is now the country’s largest law firm,

having about 37 partners across 8 offices. Bar rules strongly keep foreign law firms at a distance as many local

firms staunchly oppose its legal market liberalization save few such as Fox Mandal Little which openly subscribes

to foreign incursion.

China’s legal market is highly liberalized, having several foreign law firms in it.

See, Claire Plarre, BRICSA: The Evolution of the Five Legal Markets in Emerging Economies 44 In Nigeria, for instance, the Legal Practitioners Act of 1962 forbids one who has not been called to the Nigerian

Bar to practice law. Jurisdictional restrictions are traditional to the legal profession but the 21st century legal

profession is delocalized – cross-border and multijurisdictional. 45 See, The African Legal Market: An Exciting Story in the Making


pg. 13

headquartered in Nigeria. Other bigger networks are African Legal Alliance and

LEX Africa – founded in 1993 and composed of top-tier law firms from 20

countries. 46

Further, the presence of African Development Bank in Ivory Coast (Abidjan)

attracts international law firms to its market. Orrick, for instance, entered the

market in 2014. French speaking countries such as Cameroun, seem to attract

more of French firms. For instance, Lefevre, Pelletier & Associates entered

Cameroun in 2016. Moreover, since the African Intellectual Property

Organization is based in Yaoundé, it naturally attracts international firms to its

legal market. 47

West African institutions such as the Economic and Monetary Union and the

Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law (OHADA)48 in Africa

which provide for a common economic and legal framework amongst member-

states, and their flourishing arbitration practices, are making cross-border trade

and commerce much easier, thus, enhancing investor confidence for entry into

the region, even though individual countries in West Africa have their unique

approaches to legal market incursion. Nigeria, for instance, much as a member of

the World Trade Organization, has not accepted to liberalize their legal services

by signing the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS).49

However, the South African legal market so far is the most liberal and mature in

the entire Continent. South Africa is home to international firms such as DLA

Piper, Allen & Overy, Hogan Lowells and Baker & McKenzie. But the most

sought after firms in South Africa are Bowman Gilfilan – which has offices in

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, having close ties with Nigerian film - Udo, Udoma

& Belo-OSagie, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, ENSafrica, Norton Rose Fullbright and

Webber Wentzel. 50

The bottom-line is that the growing networks of lawyers across the Continent

suggests the rise of Pan-African firms. While behemoth firms such as DLA Piper,

Dentons and Baker & McKenzie strive to spread their tentacles across the

Continent, local firms are also rising to meet this challenge by forming alliances

and networks across the Continent. These alliances (such as African Legal

Network) unite domestic firms which collaborate to meet the needs of cross-

border clients. The core idea and singular objective is to have a Pan-African law

46 ibid 47 Ibid 48 OHADA has about 17 members, out of 54 countries 49 Desmond Guobadia, Globalization of Legal Services – What Should Nigeria Do? 50 See, The African Legal Market: An Exciting Story in the Making, supra


pg. 14

firm that is competently equipped to meet the challenges of globalization in the

legal market across Africa. 51

Given the complexities and uncertainties that beset the African legal market,

ranging from unfriendly regulatory conditions, unstable macroeconomic climate,

insecurities amidst a projected rampant population growth, projected rapid

urbanization and a burgeoning middleclass, with less than 4 percent market share

of the global legal value size, how do we drive growth in the African legal

industry in order to arrive at the projected 12% of the global legal spend by 2025?

In the section following, we shall look at the impact of technology in driving

growth in the legal market.

Technology and Business Growth in the African Legal Industry

As earlier noted, technology is the 21st century global economic growth engine.

It is not only a vehicle for global economic revolution and industrial invasive

disruption but a global economic growth driver. According to World Economic

Forum, the number of mobile subscribers as at 2013 was already 6.8 billion,

approaching global population figures, with 40% of people in the world already

online. Computer technology, telecommunications, the internet, and software

technology are transforming economies but the competitiveness of these

economies depends on their ability to leverage new technologies52, just as the

survival of most industries depends on their response to change. This is where the

legal industry in Africa stands vis-a-vis technology.

Technology is an economic growth booster. It is so far one of the largest

employers all around the world. In 2014, Vision Mobile reported that software

technology (app economy) alone generated about 667,000 (direct) and 1 million

(direct and indirect) jobs in Europe, accounting for $16.5 billion in revenue,

which was about 19% of global app economy, recording about 12% annual

growth rate.53 In 2016, the US app economy generated about a total of 9.8 million

jobs (includes indirect and induced impacts), $475.3 billion direct value-added

GDP, $52 billion in Research & Development (by Software companies) with a

total value-added GDP of $1.07 trillion (includes indirect and direct impacts).54

Now in Africa, four countries and four cities from the four regions have been

identified as investment hubs of the Continent. These are Johannesburg (SA,

51 See Francis Iven, Africa Calling – How Rapid Change in the Continent is Shaking up its Legal Market, 27th

March, 2015. 52 See Elena Kvochko, Five Ways Technology can Help the Economy, 11 April, 2013, World Economic Forum. 53 See Vision Mobile, The European App Economy 2014, August 2014, available at www.vmob.me/EU14. 54 See BSA, The $ 1 Trillion Economic Impact of Software, June 2016, available at www.bsa.org/softwareimpact


pg. 15

South), Lagos (Nigeria, West), Nairobi (Kenya, East) and Casablanca (Morocco,

North). The city of Lagos in Nigeria alone generated about $136 billion from

Information and Communication Technology in 2016.55 This is how impactful

technology can be to the global economy.

It is therefore pertinent to reiterate that, for African countries to actualize their

economic dream, they must harness their economic potentials through the vehicle

of technology. To this end, we hazard to say that to successfully drive business

growth in the African legal industry, we must deploy the forces of technology in

the under-discussed ways.

Legal Technologies Adoption

Indeed, on a fundamental level, attorneys are in the business of creating

documents.56 According to IBM, 2.5 quintillion (2,500, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000)

bytes of data is being generated every day.57 Can you imagine how much data is

created in 365 days? The volume of data to be generated from between today and

2025 can only be a matter of sheer conjectural dubitation or mere speculative

conclusion.58

This alone gives us an idea of what amount of data the 21st-century legal industry

has to handle daily. How does the African legal industry handle data? It only

provokes mirth to imagine but fury to realize that most African lawyers or law

firms still try to handle data manually.59

How is data processed, stored, retrieved and communicated within the African

legal industry? Are there yet law offices or corporate legal divisions managing or

attempting to manage this volume of data on paper?60

According to a report by BCG & Bucerius Law School, “the digitization of legal

data constitutes another megatrend transforming workflows and business models.

55 See Olubode Olusesan, Insecurity Threatens Lagos’ Tech Growth, $136 billion GDP, 15th July, Punch

Newspapers 56 See Casey Morgan, The Legal Industry V. Technology, StorageCraft. 57 See Sterling Miller, Part 1: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Legal Technology: To boldly Go Where No

Legal Department Has Gone Before, Thompson Reuters. 58 Some years ago, Google CEO – Eric Schmidt, estimated that from the dawn of Civilization to 2003, humans

had produced a total of 5 Exabytes (or billion gigabytes) of information. In 2010, that same amount of information

was produced every two days. You can only imagine what amount it will be by 2025. See R. Amani Smathers,

supra 59 See Goodnews Daniel, supra 60 It is almost conventional or normal to move into a typical Nigerian law firm and find stack of paper files

everywhere. It is not different with Ministries of Justice. But recent developments show that this is gradually

changing as many law firms are at least computerizing their firms which is basic office automation, and not legal

technology adoption.


pg. 16

The volume of data used in legal advice has increased exponentially – a pattern

seen in many other industries as well. For instance, in the Enron, Lehman

Brothers, and (more recently) Volkswagen cases, lawyers have had to review and

interpret hundreds of thousands of emails and other documents to establish

facts.”61

How does the African lawyer analyse data? If, for instance, Rules of Civil

Procedure demand the discovery of all electronically stored information such as

emails, instant messages, voicemails, e-calendars, graphics and data on handheld

devices, in litigation, how would such discovery and accurate identification of

materially relevant data, amidst thousands of such electronically stored

information, especially when corporate clients are involved, be made? This

complex process is known as e-discovery.62 This process cannot be efficiently

manually done any more.63 As a matter of fact, “in the future, the ability to screen,

analyse, and interpret unprecedented volumes of data will become just as critical

to law firms’ success as the “art” of delivering legal advice.64 Thus a variety of

legal technologies enabling the digitization and automation of these and other

legal-work activities abound.

How does the African lawyer carry out research? We noted that the I-Shaped

lawyer was trained to “book” for information in the library, but the T-Shaped

lawyer understands that the biggest and richest library is the internet. But beyond

that, he leverages legal technologies designed to expedite his research.65 Besides,

search solutions that used to be Boolean (that is, producing results that match the

search definition only) have been updated with predictive coding.66 Legal

technologies are radically changing the business of law.

Legal technologies - software solutions that either automate legal work or deliver

some sort of legal service or create some kind of legal value, now inundate the

legal industry, and are making threatening attempts to cause colossal disruption

therein. But surprisingly, there is an observable low technology adoption rate

among law firms and lawyers. Regardless of the reason(s) behind such low

61 BCG & Bucerius Law School, How Legal Technology Will Change the Business of Law, Jan 2016. 62 The market value of E-discovery alone has been estimated at around $5.5 billion. One big player in the e-

discovery solutions market is Encase. 63 E-discovery is, perhaps, not yet incorporated into most African civil procedure rules, but in the advanced world

where they apply, e-discovery AI-driven software help out with this cumbersome process. 64 See BCG & Bucerius Law School, supra 65 Legal research solutions include Lexis/Nexis, WestLaw, ROSS Intelligence (world’s smartest legal assistant),

LawPavilion – though they are proprietary and as such not free. 66 This is the algorithm behind e-discovery solutions. With predictive coding, the application can learn from

previous search results and determine results that are relevant for future searches. Predictive Coding is learning

from the past and predicting the future. Most legal analytical and search solutions make use of this algorithm too.

Example is RaveLaw


pg. 17

adoption, BCG thinks that “law firms that fail to take advantage of legal

technology, or that do not adapt to the new realities it presents, risk losing

corporate clients to more forward-thinking law practices, at best. At worst, they

may go out of businesses entirely, replaced by the very vendors supplying legal-

tech products and services.”67 The legal-tech landscape, according to BCG, is as

shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Legal Technology Framework

Source: BCG & Bucerius Law School

Figure 2 above shows that there are three layers of legal technology: substantive

law solutions, support processes solutions and enabler technologies. Simply put,

the enabler technologies are focused on facilitating digitization. These solutions

range from general to legal-specific such as Office automation tools68, cloud

storage tools69, legal collaboration platforms70, and cybersecurity solutions. The

67 ibid 68 Most of these solutions have been developed by general tech vendors. For example, Microsoft Office Suite,

though developed for all industries, are often used in law firms for data digitization. 69 Several Cloud storage tools are in use today, but majority were developed by general tech vendors. Examples

are Google Cloud, Amazon Cloud, etc. These solutions, when used in the legal industry, are referred to as enabler

technologies. 70 These are legal-specific solutions designed to enable lawyers collaborate over the cloud. These solutions are

preferred these days because of security issues with the general tech solutions, for example, Dropbox was hacked


pg. 18

second layer or category of legal technologies are referred to as support-processes

solutions. They are focused on law firms’ case and client management and back

office work – which include human resource management, accounting, customer

relationship management, payroll, billing and finance.71 And of course the third

category referred to as substantive law solutions are designed to support or even

replace lawyers in the execution of certain core legal tasks both in transaction and

litigation.72

That said, it must be noted that, for the African legal industry to grow and increase

its share in the global legal market size, these technologies must not remain alien

to both solo practitioners and law offices. The business of law can grow only by

forceful adoption of legal technologies and adaptation to the new realities created

thereof. These solutions inter alia include legal expert systems, legal

collaboration systems, entrepreneurial lawyering, document assembly and

automation solutions, big data, data science, information security, online case &

client management systems, cloud computing, Cyberlaw, legal bargaining

technologies, e-discovery solutions, legal analytics solutions etc.73

However, there are specific steps to be taken in this direction for African legal

industry to experience growth, much as these are not exclusive and applicable to

only the African legal industry but also the legal industry in most Asian and Latin

American emerging economies, and the advanced economies the world over, by

extension.74

Truth is, African lawyers or the African legal industry should consciously disrobe

itself of the garment of conservatism, and embrace, adopt or adapt to the new

realities created by technology. This is because the distance between its present

position in the global legal market and its potential position therein, is technology.

Embrace it. Leverage it. Grow. But the only step to do this is this: Invest in legal

technology. This will guide the remaining part of our discussion as we discuss

how to leverage legal technologies in the following ways.

in 2012, and several clients’ information were compromised. The legal industry is not only a data-driven industry;

it is a confidentiality-driven industry also. Thus, specific solutions designed with clients’ information security in

mind, are better. 71 BCG thinks that the legal profession still lags behind other professional services in deploying the software used

in these solutions. 72These solutions include AI-driven technologies such Legal Expert Systems, Document Automation and

Assembly solutions, E-discovery solutions, Legal Analytics solutions, legal information retrieval systems, Online

Dispute Resolution systems, etc. For more information on them, see Goodnews Daniel supra 73 For more information on these technologies and their examples, see Goodnews Daniel supra 74 This is because the legal profession is universally technology-adverse and conservative, hence, slow to change,

whether in Africa or America.


pg. 19

Law School Curriculum Update & Continuing Legal Education

Traditional lawyering provides a law school curriculum that is centred only

around legal expertise. That produces 21st century lawyers with 19th century

nous.75 One of the first steps to be taken for adopting or adapting to the new

realities created by technology is that law school curricula across Africa should

be redesigned to include legal technology-related courses.76

Tomorrow law business depends predominantly on today lawyers, and we cannot

expect to have lawyers different from the process that produces them. Moreover,

as the Latin maxim puts it, nemo dat quod non habet 77 The objective of this

approach is to produce lawyers that are technologically-savvy and prepared to

adopt and adapt to the vagaries of technological innovation. Ilina Rejeva believes

that the benefit of teaching legal tech in law schools is that it helps law firms to

put their processes in place, eliminate waste, discover the true added-value their

law firm creates and enable the firm to quote prices accordingly.78

Most forward-looking law schools around the world have designed a curriculum

that integrates legal tech into their curricula.79 Bucerius School of Law in

Germany is one forward-thinking law school that prepares lawyers for the

future.80 Arguably, if law school curriculum changes to meet the demands of

technology, the projected 12% of global legal market spend will become a natural

result.

It begins at the law school where the next generation of lawyers are trained, but

if they are not well equipped with the requisite knowledge and paraphernalia of a

T-shaped lawyer, how can they competently chart the course of the legal

profession beyond what the older generation did? How can they grow the African

legal industry amidst a rapidly growing population, burgeoning middleclass and

a snowballing FDI which are all driven in one direction by the wind of

75 Susskind R., Legal informatics - A Personal Appraisal of Context and Progress, European Journal of Law and

Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2010. 76See Daniel Martin Katz, The MIT School of Law? A Perspective on Legal Education in the 21st Century,

University of Illinois Law Review 2014. 77 You cannot give what you don’t have (literally applied here) 78 Ilina Rejeva, LegalTech Knowledge: Will Law Schools React on Time? June14 2016 79 Legal Tech courses include E-discovery, Legal Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Legal Expert System, Legal

Project Management, Artificial Intelligence and Law, Big Data and Data Security, Internet of Things, etc. 80 Others include Stanford Law School, Michigan State University Law School, Miami Law School, Harvard Law

School, etc. These Law Schools all have Law Innovation Centres where they prepare their students to become T-

Shaped in this 21s Century. Stanford law School has Codex; Bucerius Law School has Centre on the Legal

Profession (CLP) & Open Innovation Lab; Miami Law School has LawWithoutWalls; Michigan Law School has

LegalRandD, etc. The big question is, do we have any forward-thinking law school in Africa?


pg. 20

technology? If they fail to become technophisticated, they will become not only

unproductive, but worse still, irrelevant.81

We must remind ourselves that for the legal profession, learning is endless,

education continues. That means law school curriculum redesign will only fix the

younger generation who are themselves digital natives. What becomes of the

digital immigrants - those lawyers or law firms with majority of lawyers trained

and called to Bar before the advent or upsurge of legal technology? This is the

reason for continuing Legal education. Lawyers must not stop learning. They

should be updated with not only information but also technology. That is why it

is called Information Technology.

Accordingly, firms should periodically design seminars for partners and

associates on current practices as regards the use of technology. The growth of

the firm depends on the growth of the people - no lawyer can advise beyond their

knowledge and expertise, and if the required expertise and skill is lacking,

corporate clients are lost, and in the process, African legal spend is adversely

affected. Why must most matters be shipped to London or the US or France if

African layers have the expertise?82

Joint Degree Course for Computer Science & Law

This idea is quite novel in Africa, but it is practicable and a necessity for us to

drive growth in the legal industry across the Continent. In fact, Stanford

University and a host of other universities around the world offer it. The rationale

is that such joint degree programme would produce lawyers with both legal and

technological expertise which would enable them reintermediate the legal

profession as the only medium of legal services delivery as traditionally known.

This Course will have the traditional core law courses as known plus legal

technology design thinking courses such as computer programming. 83

This program will produce technophisticated lawyers who will compete with

lawyers from the most advanced economies and communicate in the same

language technology speaks across the globe. Also, it will produce legal

81 In 2007, Massachusetts Bar Association Law Journal stated categorically, thus: The risk of not riding today’s

technological wave is that our profession becomes increasingly irrelevant... Without question, the growth in

choice the public maintains in addressing its legal needs inevitably lowers the value of services we, as a bar, have

traditionally provided. In order to advance, we must embrace the qualities of the “digital lawyer”. See, Goodnews Daniel supra 82 We will discuss Specialization later on 83 For more information on it, see Goodnews Daniel supra


pg. 21

creatives84 and bring into reality the idea of the engineer-lawyer.85 We must not

fail to realize that in this technetronic society, the descendants of the goldsmith

seem to replace the descendants of the sophist, but we can have a fusion of both

to produce an unmatched clone. 86 When this is successfully introduced in our

universities, we would have set the pace for producing legal tech from the shores

of Africa, preparing the Continent more adequately, to contend for a larger share

of the global legal spend.

Legal Data Digitization

Another way to adopt legal technology so as to grow in the business of law is to

digitize our data. African lawyers cannot be efficient let alone becoming uber-

efficient when volumes of data are still managed in black and white. Enabler

technologies such as Microsoft Office Suite is a good start. In the African legal

industry, it is almost an aberration not to find lawyers who are technophobic. Why

are lawyers so averse to change? Are lawyers truly laggards or Luddites or both?

Growth in the business of law begins with legal tech adoption which itself begins

with data digitization. Legal data digitization helps to achieve accuracy of data,

proper storage and safety, data integrity protection, errors reduction, access and

retrieval ease, ease of use and easy data modification and updation, and faster

information transfer and communication. Of course, once data is digitized, it can

be easily stored on the cloud which in one way reduces IT cost and increases

efficiency and productivity as it allows for remote access from any part of the

world, and from any device, bypassing all the restrictions of onsite IT facilities.

84 The legal profession is not designed to produce creatives but analysts and perhaps, logicians. More so, lawyers

are trained to think backward – the doctrine of stare decisis compels legal minds to be historic, not futuristic.

Lawyers make more use of their memory than their imagination. But this course would give certain creatives who

seem to be trapped in legal reasoning to exercise their creativity in legal tech design and innovation. 85 Justice Posner once called for lawyers trained in the sciences to help out with various high tech issues in the

areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology. See, Law Innovations Seminar: The 21st Century Lawyer: changes

and Challenge, Lex Computus Labs, 2017. 86 Professor John McGinnis maintains that the goldsmiths of modern society seem to be replacing the wordsmith.

This is the case where the goldsmith produces technologies that are taking the jobs of the wordsmith. It’s all about

the T-Shaped lawyer. Until and unless a lawyer is T-Shaped, it makes no difference how much of a wordsmith he

is, goldsmiths will soon take his job through their Machine Intelligence-powered solutions. See John McGinnis

supra


pg. 22

Law Office Virtualization

Virtualization simply means putting it up on the cloud.87 In other words, law

office virtualization means that law office work is moved out of the brick-and-

mortar office to the internet for 24/7 access and presence.88 This is implemented

by leveraging various cloud-based services for e-lawyering which is one of the

fastest ways to grow a law business.

Traditional lawyering is bespoke and legal services are delivered on one-to-one

basis within a particular geographical location. In fact, legal traditionalists hardly

believe in cross-border lawyering. They are so legally programmed to adhere

strictly to sacrosanct jurisdictional restrictions imposed by Bar rules, they fail to

realize that business growth and competitive advantage of any kind in the 21st

century is contingent upon adoption of tech and adaptation - quick response to

change. Truth is, the 21st century lawyer practises law across multiple

jurisdictions. This is the “new normal” created by globalization. While it may not

be possible to handle litigation in jurisdictions a lawyer is not licensed, advisory

and transactional services are trans-jurisdictional. Law Office Virtualization is

one way to deliver legal services on one-to-many basis. That is growth.

Cloud-based platforms designed specifically for law office virtualization

abound89. Vendors integrate case and client management functionalities into

them. These platforms help with client/counsel communications as documents

can be easily shared between them, schedules can be made, and several other

typically brick-and-mortar office functions are provided to enhance law practice,

spur growth and productivity. One of the advantages of using these cloud

solutions for legal collaboration is the fact that encrypted communication has

been built into them unlike the general platforms where communication is mostly

unencrypted,90 thus, exposed to interception and wiretapping. Again, law firms

87 Cloud here doesn’t mean cloud, simpliciter. It’s a metaphor for the internet. Cloud Computing is working over

the internet, either by storing information on the internet – Infrastructure as a Service, using software solutions

that are running on your browser – Software as a Service, or developing applications using the internet – Platform

as a Service. Other cloud services abound but these are the basic three. 88 When Richard Susskind predicted the future law firm having access and presence, in his 2008 book, he was

actually talking about cloud-based platforms or client portals. He was referring to a virtual law office where access

and presence is uninterruptible. It’s the catalyst for not only growth in the 21st century but also for competitive

advantage.

See Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, (Oxford University,2009) 89 One example of these is MyCase 90 Nicole Black, Lawyers, Cloud Computing and Innovation: How Cloud Computing Facilitates Innovation in the

delivery of Legal Services, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 2014.


pg. 23

can adopt BYOD91 to reduce in-house IT cost as everything they all need to work

with are on the cloud, and are accessible remotely 24/7.

Legal Process Outsourcing

According to Sally Kane, “legal process outsourcing (LPO) is the exporting of

legal services to low-wage markets overseas. An increasing number of

companies, large and small, are outsourcing legal work to destinations across the

globe.”92 Factors that fuel the legal process outsourcing trend include

globalization, internet growth, increased legal processes automation, economic

changes and the rising cost of legal services, development in data security and

new technology tools. 93

How would this drive growth in the African legal industry? Two ways: (a) Africa

can also become another LPO destination. Like India - the largest LPO

destination, majority of legal systems in Africa have Common Law roots. This

absolutely makes it easy to receive legal work from the UK and the US and other

Common Law-based legal systems – New Zealand, Australia, etc.

Besides, the African legal industry has a large pool of competent and skilful legal

workers. In Nigeria alone, over 3000 lawyers are called to the Nigerian Bar,

yearly. Can you imagine how many lawyers have been called to Bar in Nigeria in

the last 10 years? This means that the African legal industry can leverage legal

tech and become a destination for LPO94. But certain basic tech issues must be

resolved to make services available 24/7 and make it cheap too. As earlier noted,

by virtualizing law offices, the industry is being set to become an LPO destination

to attract legal work from other parts of the globe.

(b) Africa can leverage LPO too. Two things are involved: Africa should either

receive legal work from others thereby boosting the African economy and

increasing Africa’s share of the global legal spend, or give out legal work to cut

down cost and take advantage of the round-the-clock availability to fix home

issues.

The LPO market is one of the fastest growing markets in the global legal industry.

Its global value is estimated to have exceeded $ 2 billion in 2015. Leading LPO

91 BYOD stands for BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE 92 Sally Kane, Legal Process Outsourcing, February 23, 2017, available at http://www.thebalance.com/legal-

process-outsourcing-Ipo-2164405 93 Ibid 94 LPO work is done in various areas of the legal industry such as corporate secretarial services, legal research,

consultancies, ADR, etc.


pg. 24

destinations are India, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, the Caribbean Islands,

Singapore and only one African country included – South Africa95. These

countries thrive in the LPO market because of cheap labour with a pool of skilled

legal workers. Africa is the Continent of the brave, bright and beautiful. If South

Africa could do it, other African countries can follow suit. It is one of the ways

to drive growth in the business of law.

Bar Associations’ Tech Division and Legislations Updation

The African Legal industry can also adopt technology by creating Tech

Divisions96 within various Bar Associations and Legal Tech Resource Centres 97where lawyers are regularly trained and updated with current legal technologies

to enhance their legal practice, across the continent. Bar Associations should

partner with tech vendors for such trainings as lawyers’ productivity depends on

their knowledge and use of technology.

Also, the rapid growth of technology causes lag for the legal profession. Most

legislations in Africa, as it is in most parts of the globe, are lagging behind

technology.98 Africa lacks comprehensively updated legislations on common

technology realities such as data protection99, privacy, cybercrime100, data

security, intellectual property101, electronic defamation102 etc., let alone more

bizarre and complex areas like virtual reality, biotechnology, nanotechnology,

robotics, brain-computer interface, internet of things etc.

95 www.grandviewresearch.com/indutry-analysis/legal-process-outsourcing-Ipo-market. 96 The American Bar Association Tech Division for instance is responsible for putting TechShows and

Conferences to constantly educate lawyers on tech and law. 97 These Centres are for legal tech training, research and innovation. In Nigeria, Lex Computus Labs exists for this

purpose, and desires to partner with various Bar Associations across the Continent for training of lawyers on legal

tech, and carrying out research on Computational Law. Lex Computus Labs is an Artificial Intelligence and Law

Labs for entrepreneurial lawyering. 98 Truth is, unlike Technology that changes almost every five years or less, law can exist and apply in a society

for over a century. In the Nigerian Legal System, for instance, some of the Statutes of General Application are

over 300 years old. These Statutes (Sale of Goods Act for example) were crafted when there was no internet. How

then do you expect such legislation that was enacted with no contemplation of a virtual world, cater for and cover

all virtual commercial transactions? Now even when certain legislations are updated to adapt to the new realities

created by tech, technology still changes faster, and legal processes cannot be as much fast and fluid to meet up.

It is called “Law Lag” 99 Advanced and emerging economies such as the UK, US, Canada, Japan, China, Malaysia etc., all have their

respective legislations on data protection. Most African countries don’t – even the amongst the biggest economies,

only South Africa has adopted her Protection of Personal Information Act. At the time of writing, Kenya,

Morocco, and Nigeria don’t have yet, much as there have been claims that work is ongoing to that effect. 100 Nigerian enacted her Cybercrime Act in 2015 but how much it caters for and covers virtual criminal activities

is unknown yet as there are yet to be case law on this area. 101 The need to update our Intellectual Property legislations is urgent. Take Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, for

example, where IT work – software vendors are increasing rapidly, our IP legislation must be updated to

differentiate source code from executables, and determine who owns what. Recent Supreme Court decision in the

US seems to open a new part in this regard. Where does software fall under: Copyright or Patent? Is it possible

to categorize Source Code as Copyright and Executable Code as Patent? What does our Intellectual Property Act

say about it? 102 Our law must also be able to deal with electronic defamation. Example, UK Defamation Act 2013


pg. 25

The Continent also needs a Continent-wide Data Protection Directive like the EU

Data Protection Directive to help with this process.

Legal Market Liberalization

Traditionally, the legal profession, the world over, maintained absolute

jurisdictional limitations. Statutes and Rules of Practice designed by Bar

associations103 around the world limited law practice to specific local jurisdictions

in which a lawyer was called.104 This practice militated against multi-

jurisdictional law practice and limited law firms’ cross-border expansion. In other

words, jurisdictional restrictions powered by regulatory frameworks invariably

stifled business growth in the legal industry. How else could business growth

limitation be better defined and explained other than cross-border expansion

prohibition?

But today, the situation is different as like other industries, the legal service

market has not itself been spared the overarching influence of globalization.105

This is because as economies, emerging and advanced alike, have grown, the

demand for cross-border legal services has also grown in tandem.106 This has

resulted in the merger, alliance and network of firms across borders for globalized

delivery of legal services. As such, international behemoth firms such as DLA

Piper, Baker & McKenzie, Slaughter & May, Clifford Chance, Dentons, Allen &

Overy etc. strategize to spread their practice tentacles across Africa, having

already made significant market entry in most liberalist parts of the continent.107

In the same vein, African domestic firms are also forming alliances and creating

networks to produce Pan-African law firms for cross-border law practice within

the Continent. Many of such alliances include Africa Legal Network, Lex Africa,

etc., but as earlier noted, different African legal markets adopt their unique market

entry approach. While some are highly protectionist, others are liberalist. While

it has been argued that a liberalist market access would open up the legal market

103 In Nigeria, for example, the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962, Sections (1) and (2) unambiguously provided such

limitation with exceptions though. 104 D.D. Dodo, The Challenges of the Nigerian Lawyer in the 21st Century Global Legal Market Place, 12

November 2015, Nigerian Law School, Abuja. 105 Desmond Guobadia explains, thus: “Globalization essentially is the world-wide process of homogenizing

prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits. The primary objective is to break down impediments that

unnecessarily clog relations among countries and thereby create fully integrated world economy where borders,

jurisdictions, would thin out and be replaced by homogenous economies and products, integration of economies

around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows.” See, Desmond Guobadia, Globalization of Legal

Services – What Should Nigeria Do? 106 Ibid 107 These firms already have a foothold on the legal market of the liberalist countries in Africa. Investment

destinations such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Morocco are already hosting some of them.


pg. 26

to international firms and “create broad based synergies and amalgams between

the global firms and the local firms which would strengthen local content”108, it

has also been argued from a protectionist standpoint that legal service market

delocalization and the resultant proliferation of global firms would stifle the

development of domestic firms.

But can the African legal industry drive and experience real growth and increase

its share of the global legal spend, achieving and perhaps, exceeding its projected

12% increase by 2025 with several legal and regulatory walls erected against

international market incursions? Certain countries and cities have already been

identified as investment destinations in Africa. These cities are Lagos,

Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca. Truth is, if these countries or specifically,

cities fail to put conducive investor-friendly regulatory frameworks in place,

foreign investors would be discouraged109 and it will deplete the inflow of FDI110

which will in turn reduce the amount of legal work and legal spend in the market.

We understand that the sole of objective of World Trade Organization is to

liberalize trade across borders in the world. One of the several agreements signed

by member-states is GATS – General Agreement on Trade in Services111, which

is designed to liberalize services, including legal services, amongst member-

states, but most African countries have not signed this Agreement to open up their

legal market to the forces of globalization. Also, other attempts to remove trade

restrictions among African countries have been made. One of such is the 17-

member OHADA – Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in

Africa which seeks to create cross-border trade relations among member-states.

That said, instead of being completely protectionist or liberalist in market entry

approach, African legal markets can adopt a mild fusion – liberal protectionism

- a seemingly noncommittal stance to leverage its advantages and minimize its

perceived disadvantages as the forces of globalization continue to fight for legal

service delocalization, albeit most advanced economies adopt a fully liberalist

approach.112 Therefore, African legal markets can be liberalized with a

protectionist condition. International firms can be allowed entry into the legal

108 See Desmond Guobadia, supra 109 Lagos State already established the Office of Overseas Affairs & Investment to boost international investment

in Lagos, and has also created investor-friendly legal and regulatory frameworks such as land reform act, double

taxation treaties, limited liability reviews and Free Trade Zones. 110 Lagos State Government, Nigeria reported FDI of £13m in the city of Lagos in the first half of 2016 which was

50% more than the total volume of FDI in 2015 111 GATS is one of the 60 agreements and decisions signed in 1994 at the conclusions of the Uruguay Round of

negotiations. When countries sign GATS, they are committed themselves to periodic negotiations to progressively

eliminate barriers to international trade in services without requiring further approval from other member-states.

See Section (19) of GATS. 112 Example is Australia


pg. 27

market but not permitted to retain their international brand names. In other words,

global firms seeking entry in the market must do so through partnership with

domestic firms. That way, Africa can enjoy the enormous benefits of legal service

liberalization and experience growth in the legal industry.

Social Networking

Social networking has the potential and tremendous power to transform the

business and practice of law. Lawyers and legal professionals around the globe

can connect with ease. Law firms can advertise their business on social media and

easily have referrals and grow their client base. On Facebook, for instance, a law

firm can have a page and command large followership through sponsored

advertisement. All it needs is dedicated time to manage. Social networking is

changing how legal professionals, law firms and lawyers recruit, network and

interact with clients. These platforms, for the most part, can be key marketing

tools helping lawyers and law firms to reach a broad audience and grow thereby

as they deliver cross-border transactional and advisory services using the

internet.113

Mergers & Acquisitions

Another way to experience growth in the legal industry is by forming alliances,

networks or merger. With an exponentially growing internet, legal services are

becoming increasingly liberalized as cross-border limitations are giving way to

globalization. That means, as global firms penetrate the African legal market,

competition on cross-border commercial transactional and advisory services will

heighten. This will necessitate the merger move for most domestic firms in order

to afford them a foothold in the market.

Also, as FDI increases, and investors find abode in the continent, legal work in

terms of M&A will also increase. According to African Development Bank

Group, cross-border M&A transactions in Africa rose dramatically from $485

million in 1990 to $44 billion in 2010 but dropped in 2011 to $27 billion. 114 It is

however forecast to rise in the future, and domestic firms need to consolidate to

compete with the present international firms on M&A deals.115

113 Examples of trending social networking platforms are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. 114 AFDB Group, Mergers and Acquisitions, 2012, available at https://www.afdb.org/en/blogs/afdb-championing-

inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/mergers-and-acquisitions-in-africa-10163/ (accessed 20th July, 2017) 115 Clifford Chance - an international behemoth law firm alone handled an increased 50% M&A deals in East

Africa in 2016. Where are the domestic firms? Local firms need to consolidate, merge or ally with others to be

more formidable in size and manpower to forge growth in the industry. The African legal market has a “Small

Law” syndrome as there are very few, if any at all, law firms having above 100 partners in Africa.


pg. 28

Specialization

According to BCG, “small, generalist practices face a serious risk of disruption,

being edged out of the market by technology vendors or law firms that leverage

technology.”116 Put differently, law firms and lawyers who practise general law,

that is, without a specialty area, would be put out of business by technology

vendors or their counterparts who choose to adopt technology. The need to

specialize cannot be overemphasized as failure to do so would unavoidably result

in disruption.

African lawyers need to understand that technology or tech vendors are their

number one opposing counsel, not another lawyer or firm. Law firms should seek

to cave their niche in an area of practice or face the risk of being generalist

practice. Only specialization can afford lawyers in Africa the opportunity and

skill to compete against others from more advanced economies. Specialty areas 117abound but one area that the 21st-century African lawyer must seek to have

expertise in is Telecommunications Media & Technology.118 Perhaps, Franck

Soutuol and Jeremy Giacopazzi of Inlex Africa were right when they said that

90% of African lawyers were generalists.119 For them, that is a great opportunity

in West Africa, particularly. Growth is not in being a generalist but a specialist.

Therefore, specialize to grow.

Softwarization

Softwarization120 is a tech neologism. It has two meanings in relation to the

impact of software technology in the world over. First, it refers to the process of

transforming an industry through the power of software technology. Simply put,

it refers to software invasion of an industry. Second, it refers to when a firm or

an organization from a different industry transforms itself into a software

vendor121. It is also known as softgrafting.122

116 See BCG & Bucerius Law School, supra 117 Specialty areas among others include ADR (ODR – Online Dispute Resolution is already taken up by

Technology – No room for human interferences there), Corporate & Business law, Oil & Gas law, Information

Technology law (sub-areas could be nanotech and biotech), Patent law, Intellectual Property law, Environmental

law, Employment & Labour law, Criminal law, etc. 118 TMT is about Big Data, Data Protection, and the legal market place. 119 See African Legal Markets: An Exciting Story in the Making, supra 120 It’s a term coined by Goodnews Daniel in his book, What if the Computer Replaces the lawyer? 121 Amazon wasn’t a software company but an online book retailing store until they softwarized and became one

of the leading vendors in Cloud Computing. 122 Softgrafting is a portmanteau word for Software and Engrafting. It means engrafting a firm into the software

industry as a vendor.


pg. 29

This is so far the biggest step the legal industry in Africa can dare to take. BCG

recommends for Big Law123 to consider investing heavily in legal tech which

implies developing legal tech solutions. One of the countermeasures against

disintermediation attempts by tech vendors is to softwarize. Law firms can begin

to collaborate with tech vendors within the Continent for such innovations. This

also means entrepreneurial lawyering. Softwarizing a law firm can also create

room for Alternative Business Structures124for expansion and growth. If a law

firm partners with a non-legal organization, say, tech vendor, the outcome would

be meeting both legal needs and legal tech needs using in-house resources.

CHALLENGES OF THE AFRICAN LEGAL INDUSTRY

According to Lex Mundi, “the total power capacity for the whole of Sub-Saharan

Africa is less than that of Spain. South Africa has a population of 50m but a peak

capacity of 45, 000 MW. Nigeria has a population that is three times this but has

a peak capacity of only around 4,000 MW”.125

We cannot be discussing technology and its impact on business growth without

tackling the very power that drives technology itself - which is electric power

supply. Without power, there is no technology. Part of the reason for the low tech

adoption rate in Africa is epileptic power supply across the Continent. How can

the power capacity of a country be more than a Continent’s? Everything the 21st

century lawyer does is centred around power, ranging from mobile device use to

cloud services access. LPO is a 24/7 available service. If the power issue is not

fixed, LPO cannot be effective. Virtual law office is a 24/7 office. Yes, it is

always available, but is it also always accessible? How about the BYOD office?

The power challenge is the number one challenge to be tackled if the legal

industry must adopt tech and grow.

Another major challenge of the African legal industry is the few number of legal

tech vendors available in Africa. The legal tech landscape in Africa is very virgin

and open for exploration, but very few players are on the pitch. Kenyan start-up

123 Big Law is a term used to describe Fortune 500 or 1000 Legal. Examples are Allen & Ovary, Baker &

McKenzie, Slaughter and May, DLA Piper, etc. 124 ABS is the current law business model adopted in most countries with little variances. The “alternative service

provider” category spans a wide array of non-traditional law firm service providers, including legal process

outsourcing firms, legal staffing firms, accounting firms, technology consulting firms, and many others. It allows

for these non-traditional law firms to own and control law firms or partner with law firms to provide legal service.

Thus, in some jurisdiction, accounting firms acquire and control law firms; whereas in others, they form

collaboration or offer legal-related services that don’t constitute the formal practice of law. This business model

is not about legal market entry but industry entry – where non-law firm is legally allowed to provide legal service.

Accounting firms, for example, are currently permitted to own and control law firms in Australia, Britain and

Mexico, but in China, Germany, Spain, France, Canada (Ontario), Italy, and Japan, they cannot own and control

law firms; they can only collaborate with law firms.

See George Town Law & Peer Monitor, 2016 Report on the State of the Legal Market, 2016 125 See Lex Mundi, supra


pg. 30

Uwakili, Nigerian LegalForms, DIYLaw, Lawvers, Lex Computus Labs, South

African LexNova, Zimbabwean Citizen Justice, Ugandan Barefoot Law, are some

of the few legal tech start-ups in the Continent. But there is need for more

investment in legal tech start-ups as this will stoke up tech consciousness in the

African legal industry and increase the prevailing legal-tech literacy level, thus,

conscientizing and causing lawyers to embrace entrepreneurial lawyering.126

Furthermore, the African legal industry’s growth potential is somewhat stifled by

hostile legal and regulatory frameworks in most legal systems within the

Continent. If there are no investor-friendly regulations designed to reliably and

consistently facilitate cross-border transactions, potential investors would be

disenchanted. Why is OHADA membership only 17 out of 54, and predominantly

Francophones? A Continent-wide Regulatory Body should be set up to regulate

trade and business relations within the Continent and without, in addition to

Country-specific investment and business codes.

Also, there is a perceived indifference towards technology from lawyers in

general. It is a universal phenomenon.127 The modern law office workforce is a

mix of both digital natives - very young lawyers who were born into technology

and understand tech basics, as opposed to their digital immigrant counterparts –

older lawyers, especially those called to Bar before the internet. These two sets

of people would approach legal work differently. While one would be

conservative, the digital natives would be slightly unconventional even in the

delivery of legal service. Older lawyers seem to be unmotivated with technology

acquaintance and use. Least wonder, Richard Susskind remarked that the average

lawyer is practically unconcerned about the future of his profession.128 Only a

revolution would dislodge this perception and reaction.

In addition to the aforementioned, the legal industry also faces every other

challenge that other industries face for growth: unstable macroeconomic climate,

political unrest and restiveness, increasing insecurity and terrorism, albeit that

most parts of the Continent now enjoy free democracies, and others, partially free

democracies.129

126 Entrepreneurial Lawyering has to do with (1) Helping out Startups with the legally required processes involved

with their start-up, and compliance with legal requirements. (2) It has to do with lawyers innovating the law and

legal practice. It refers to lawyers’ entrepreneurial activities as regards legal practice innovation and legal tech

adoption, adaption and development. It is the second aspect that relates to legal tech startups. 127 Lawyers are the same everywhere. They have the same disposition probably because they are all trained to do

same thing same way through same process. Law lags behind tech, and lawyers are generally averse to tech,

whether in the US or Africa. Why do you think would lawyers in the US, in an attempt to excuse themselves from

tech, or responding from that ingrained phobia for tech, say: “I came to Law school so I wouldn’t have to do

maths.”, “I’m hired not because I’m a great tech guy, but because I’m a great lawyer”? These clichés are from

lawyers in the most advanced economy in the world. How different are they from the ones from a little village in

Africa who have no idea about technology, and as such are technophobic? 128 Susskind R., Legal Informatics – A Personal Appraisal of Context and Progress, European Journal of Law

and Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2010. 129 See Lex Mundi, supra


pg. 31

However, the greatest challenge the legal industry in Africa stands to face in the

event that legal tech is not embraced wholesale is creative destruction. This could

be the lot of firms and solo practitioners who fail to adopt and or adapt to the new

realities created by technology. Like every other industry facing disruption, if the

African legal industry fails to recontextualize, it will lose its relevance to forward-

thinking Alternative Business Providers such as accounting firms and tech

vendors who through technology, deliver cheap legal service to consumers in a

smarter and more efficient ways. Rules of Professional Practice may not be able

to deter it just as regulatory restrictions cannot halt or stop legal service

delocalization.

CONCLUSION

A global research study conducted by Deloitte shows that both demand and spend

for legal services is growing with some areas experiencing faster growth than the

others.130 Conventional law firms are no longer meeting today’s business

needs131, thus, about 55% (of the participants in the study – legal counsel, general

counsel, or CEOs and CFOs) have taken or are considering a significant review

of their legal suppliers132 as doing more with less, appropriate use of technology

and the speed of business were identified as the biggest challenges of in-house

legal departments today.133

In the same vein, George Town Law reports that corporate clients now insist on

having more value for their legal spend, emphasizing greater efficiency,

predictability, and cost-effectiveness. This change in client attitude in legal

service purchasers and expectations from legal services providers has brought

fundamental changes to the legal market.134 Greentarget also notes that traditional

law firms will continue to face pressures from clients for “more for less” as the

pool of alternative legal service providers continues to grow in its “types” of

players, ranging from legal process outsourcers to secondment and virtual firms,

and, albeit these disruptors currently represent only 1% of the legal market, by

2020, they are projected to have an exponential annual growth rate of 20 - 30%,

130 While early half (49%) of all participants in the study said that their department legal spend was growing in

the area of regulatory compliance, other growth areas include M & A (42%) and litigation (39%) 131 One in every three legal services purchasers surveyed want their legal services provider to bring industry,

commercial and non-legal expertise, which currently they do not. Purchasers also want law firms to be more savvy

on global data and cyber security protection issues and more pro-active in sharing knowledge across many

jurisdictions. Traditional law firms are seen to be trailing other professional services firms in this area. See, Deloitte, Future Trends for Legal Services, Global Research Study, June 2016. 132 55% of in-house legal departments are considering buying legal services from non-traditional law firms,

according to Deloitte’s study. That means preference for Alternative Business Providers is rising within the legal

market, and law firms should adopt ABS in order to retain clients. These ABS are mostly tech vendors and

accounting firms. Technology is the shifting agent. 133 See Deloitte, Future Trends for Legal Services, Global Research Study, June 2016. 134 GeorgeTown Law & Peer Monitor, 2017 Report on the State of the Legal Market, Thompson Reuters 2017.


pg. 32

“picking away at traditional law firm revenue (and client relationships) one move

at a time.”135

Fundamentally, the legal industry is undergoing changes that are arguably

irreversible. These changes include shrinking percentage of legal work assigned

to traditional law firms as the percentage of alternative legal service providers

continues to increase, business model innovations136 and disruptors.137 Also, Piet

Faber138 stressed that in addition to the various trends in the industry, Artificial

Intelligence will also greatly influence the law firm of the future.139

Whereas the global legal industry is still suffering from the 2008 Great Recession,

which is part of the cause for the several changes within the legal service

market140, the legal market in Africa also suffered141a blow when Africa’s

economies were hit in 2016142. These economies are repricing in 2017.143

Therefore, for law firms in particular, and the African legal industry, by

extension, to experience growth, and realize its projected 12% increase in global

legal market share by 2025, wholesale technology adoption, business

remodelling, legal market liberalization, alliances, specialization, softwarization

and or softgrafting, and entrepreneurial lawyering may be the only available

recourse. But the question is: Can technology abide where there is no power?

135 See Greentarget, 2017 Predictive Legal Trends, 2017. 136 Transitioning from BigLaw to NewLaw. While the former is traditional, the latter focuses more on leveraging

legal tech, creating work-life balance, and alternative fee arrangement (AFA) instead of the traditional billable

hour model. 137 Greentarget says: “Strategies being undertaken by firms include collaborations with those that are presenting

the greatest threats: their clients, alternative service providers and legal tech startups. In addition, proactive firms

– and those with the available resources – are making strategic investments and building up their own technologies

and alternative provider options. “See Greentarget, supra 138 ENSafrica Chief Executive Officer 139 Kathleen Kriel, Legal Practice of the Future Discussed at Practice Management Conference, Oct.,2015. 140 See GeorgeTown Law, 2017 Report on the State of the Legal market, supra 141 Remarking upon the state of the Africa’s legal market, Lex Mundi reports that “Oil producing countries such

as Nigeria and Angola are really suffering as so are the law firms that are based there.” See Lex Mundi, Africa –

the Great opportunity, supra 142 Regions that depend majorly on commodity export suffered a slump in commodity prices in 2016. Oil prices,

for instance, dropped drastically, and affected such oil-dependent economies a great deal. 143 See Deloitte, African Trends Going into 2017, February 2017


pg. 33

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